Millas replaces Adon on roster; Harvey's hand OK after scare

SAN FRANCISCO – The Nationals swapped a pitcher for a catcher prior to today’s series finale against the Giants, optioning Joan Adon back to Triple-A Rochester following his fill-in start Tuesday night and calling up Drew Millas to give them an extra position player for the time being.

With no need for a fifth starter again until next week in Los Angeles, the Nats decided to demote Adon, who tossed four innings of one-run ball in place of the injured Josiah Gray. Rather than call up another pitcher, they opted to add Millas, who will catch today’s game with Keibert Ruiz under the weather and Riley Adams sitting after starting Tuesday’s game.

Millas played in 11 games with the Nationals late last season, going 8-for-28 with a homer and six RBIs. He was sent to Rochester to begin this season but like the rest of his teammates had to deal with four consecutive postponements due to bad weather and thus has played in only four Triple-A games to date.

“It’s tough,” he said. “You’ve got to push yourself, hold yourself accountable in those scenarios. Honestly, I’ve never been through anything like that before, four straight days of not even remotely having a chance to play.”

Millas was enjoying the solar eclipse Monday afternoon with his fiance when Rochester manager Matt LeCroy called and informed him he needed to pack his things and fly to San Francisco to join the big league club.

“Skip made sure I saw the eclipse before he called me,” he said.

Adon returns to Triple-A after a solid effort in his fill-in start. The Nationals will now need to call up someone else to fill the last slot in their rotation. They’ve already announced they’re keeping the current order intact over the weekend, with Jake Irvin, MacKenzie Gore and Trevor Williams scheduled to face the Athletics. They will then either call someone up to start Monday night against the Dodgers, or use Patrick Corbin on full rest for the series opener and use the to-be-announced starter Tuesday night.

* Hunter Harvey’s left hand was feeling considerably better this morning after getting struck by a line drive Tuesday night, and the Nationals reliever was hoping he might even feel well enough to pitch today if needed.

Harvey took a 95-mph comebacker off his palm in the bottom of the eighth, the force of the impact knocking his glove off. He instantly felf numbness in his hand. He managed to track down the ball and throw to first while slipping to the ground, then got up and was clearly upset with how he felt.

“I don’t know if you’ve ever slept on your arm, to where it goes completely numb,” he said. “From my wrist to my fingertips, I had no feeling. So I was like: ‘This can’t be good. It’s got to be broken.’”

Harvey didn’t get any feeling back for about 40 minutes, a tense period of time when the oft-injured reliever worried he’d suffered yet another debilitating (and freak) injury. Once the feeling returned and X-rays showed no fracture, he breathed a sigh of relief.

“When it just goes numb like that, there’s never a good thought,” he said. “I was like: ‘There’s no way this is happening again.’ And then when we got the X-rays and it came back negative, I realized we’re going to be good. It’s no big deal now. But there was about 30 minutes, 40 minutes of that, where I was like: ‘You’ve got to be kidding me.’ Hopefully it’s all good now.”